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There are ongoing repairs occurring while the ship is in the water using cofferdams. As it is, the Texas would not survive a tow to a shipyard. The shipyard that repaired her in 1988 is gone and the closest drydock that can handle her is in Pascagoula, Ms and she barely survived the trip to Galveston in 1988. She was taking on a lot of water when she cleared that drydock and only had 6 inches to spare when she did.

One of the major structural focuses of the ongoing repairs is to frames under the engine rooms midships. Her frames look like swiss cheese (and I'm not talking about the intentional lightening holes) and couldn't support her weight, whether drydocked or dry-berthed. Dry berthing is still the long term goal.

One would think, with the booming oil industry making billions, a few might step up to the plate and handle the construction of the dry berth. Drop in the bucket money for them and they could put up a large plaque on the dry berth extolling their contribution.

The weight of those triple expansion engines certainly doesn't do Texas any good.

Yea but they need all those billions for chest thumping and such . It sucks cause they have more money then they could ever spend so it'd be nice if they would do that BUT if they would give to one museum what's to stop the others from bugging them about theirs and so on and so on.

We used too (not so sure anymore) have Travis here that worked onboard the Texas that would give us periodic updates on her.

What I would like to know is if the armored "citidel" (broadway to us) ran the entire span between all 5 turrets and could they transfer shells/machinery/parts to all 5 turrets via the citadel.

Travis still works on the ship.

The citadel does not run between all 5 turrets. It is primarily on the second deck, begins at turret 2 and ends at turret 3. This is about 170' of the ship's length. It vertically extends down to the first platform forward, but not below the second deck aft. Its primary purpose is to protect the spaces above the boiler rooms containing critical machinery, such as uptakes, condensers, etc.

All ammo transfers occurred on the third deck. While 14' shells could be moved between magazines along its length, I doubt that it was done very often. Doing so required using 2 chain lifts to carry a shell tilted at an angle so that it would clear doors. My guess is that it would have been very difficult and dangerous for handlers to do when at sea and underway. However, the third deck was a busy place during action since secondary battery ammo was transferred between lower hoists traveling from magazines to the third deck and over to upper hoists that carried it up to the mounts.

The citadel does not run between all 5 turrets. It is primarily on the second deck, begins at turret 2 and ends at turret 3. This is about 170' of the ship's length. It vertically extends down to the first platform forward, but not below the second deck aft. Its primary purpose is to protect the spaces above the boiler rooms containing critical machinery, such as uptakes, condensers, etc.

All ammo transfers occurred on the third deck. While 14' shells could be moved between magazines along its length, I doubt that it was done very often. Doing so required using 2 chain lifts to carry a shell tilted at an angle so that it would clear doors. My guess is that it would have been very difficult and dangerous for handlers to do when at sea and underway. However, the third deck was a busy place during action since secondary battery ammo was transferred between lower hoists traveling from magazines to the third deck and over to upper hoists that carried it up to the mounts.

Thank You for the reply and please give Travis my regards and keep up the good work.

The citadel does not run between all 5 turrets. It is primarily on the second deck, begins at turret 2 and ends at turret 3. This is about 170' of the ship's length. It vertically extends down to the first platform forward, but not below the second deck aft. Its primary purpose is to protect the spaces above the boiler rooms containing critical machinery, such as uptakes, condensers, etc.

All ammo transfers occurred on the third deck. While 14' shells could be moved between magazines along its length, I doubt that it was done very often. Doing so required using 2 chain lifts to carry a shell tilted at an angle so that it would clear doors. My guess is that it would have been very difficult and dangerous for handlers to do when at sea and underway. However, the third deck was a busy place during action since secondary battery ammo was transferred between lower hoists traveling from magazines to the third deck and over to upper hoists that carried it up to the mounts.

One would think, with the booming oil industry making billions, a few might step up to the plate and handle the construction of the dry berth. Drop in the bucket money for them and they could put up a large plaque on the dry berth extolling their contribution.

The weight of those triple expansion engines certainly doesn't do Texas any good.

No, but I do believe it is because of those triple expansion engines that the Texas is a historic piece, at least in one aspect.